New Fears of Nuclear War Spark Interest in Missile Shelter

U.S. Air Force photo
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Associated Press

HOLDEN, Mo. — An excavated underground Minuteman II missile site in western Missouri is attracting more interest from interested buyers since concerns have grown about North Korea's testing of missiles and belligerence toward the U.S., the site's owner said.

California investor Russ Nielsen said an eBay information page about the missile silo near Holden generally got about 70 views a day. That increased to 140 to 150 hits a day after Donald Trump became president and reached around 150 views a day since North Korea's Kim Jong Un fire missiles, Nielsen said.

"It's definitely a 'prepper' kind of thing," Nielsen said, referring to people who want to be prepared in the event of widespread calamity and disorder, The Kansas City Star reports.

Nielsen is selling the property for $325,000. He's had five potential serious buyers since he put it up for sale in the fall of 2015 and a couple of them are still trying to raise the financing.

Nielson spent two years making the "Mike-1" Minuteman II missile launch facility habitable. The silo once housed the people who controlled the triggers to 10 of the 150 intercontinental missile sites scattered across central Missouri under the command of Whiteman Air Force Base.

Most of the Minuteman II sites — including all of the Missouri sites — were decommissioned about 20 years ago and their shafts were buried under a mix of concrete, mud and rock.

The Minuteman II missiles represented the height of America's Cold War arsenal, with about 1,000 of them forever ready to launch. Some 450 sites with Minuteman III missiles remain ready in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.